Page 43 of Crushed By Love

“What do you want?” I demand. My voice cracks and I’m unable to hold back the tears.

Mortified that they’re seeing me cry, I stare down at my shoes. I can’t feel my legs but my feet are prickling as if ants are crawling in my shoes. It’s a new symptom of my panic, or maybe it was always there but I never noticed until now. I wiggle my toes in my socks, trying to squash the ants and force myself to stay calm.

Ethan catches my chin between rough hands and tilts my face up at him. He’s so much taller than me that I nearly strain my neck. Cooper leans against the door nonchalantly, like this is a normal Tuesday, like I mean absolutely nothing to him and my ensuing panic attack is a mere inconvenience. How he can turn his feelings on and off so nonchalantly is a mystery to me, a sick and twisted mystery. I can’t believe I almost slept with him.

Ethan is close, too close, his eyes two narrowed daggers. “What did Malory say to you?”

I open and close my mouth and frustration paints his gaze.

Cooper sighs languidly. “We haven’t got all day, Ardie.” My chest burns at the nickname that he knows I hate. It’s a low fucking blow because he hasn’t used it in so long. Maybe he didn’t get rid of Bree after all. Maybe they meet up to laugh about me and call me Ardie.

“Malory said that you’re going back to Manhattan tonight,” I croak out. “Why does it matter what she said to me? Go ask her yourself if you have questions.”

“What else did she say?” Ethan presses, grip tightening. Not hard enough to bruise but hard enough that I’m stuck here. I try to shove him back but he barely moves an inch from my space. “Think real hard, Arden. Did she say why we’re leaving early?”

I’m not sure which I hate more, that horrid nickname on Coop’s lips, or my real name on Ethan’s.

“Get your hands off me,” I growl, trying to shove Ethan away but it’s no use. He’s too strong and my limbs feel weaker by the second.

“Better do as the lady asks.” Cooper sounds bored, but he’s watching me with surprising interest. It’s the first real interest he’s shown me since that night in his bedroom. His words must matter to his brother because Ethan releases me.

I press myself against the wall. I want them to leave, but they’re clearly not going to let me get past without finishing this bizarre interrogation, and what does it matter? It’s not like Mrs. King told me anything private. “She said I had to clean up, lock up, and leave by tomorrow to catch the 6 p.m. ferry for Boston.”

“And that’s it? She didn’t mention anything about our father?” Ethan raises an expectant eyebrow.

“She said he needed you in the office.” I shrug.

“And you’re to go back to Boston?” He sounds skeptical. Why the fuck does he sound skeptical? It’s not like I’m lying.

“Yup. I told her I have nowhere to stay until the 25th but she said I’ve been paid and I’m smart enough to figure it out.”

I don’t know what I expect when I confess my predicament to these brothers, but it’s not bitter laughter. It rolls out of them like a dark cloud.

“She doesn’t know anything,” Cooper addressed his brother. Then he gives me a long look, locking eyes with mine. I can’t read his expression. I can’t even guess. He’s completely closed off to me. “Shame. Well, maybe I’ll see you in another life . . . I have to pack.” Then he opens the door and disappears into the hallway, locking me back in the lion’s den with Ethan.

That was the most fucked up goodbye I’ve ever received.

Now that it’s just the two of us, the space feels even smaller than it did before. Impossibly small. How can that be? I suddenly miss Cooper’s presence. He was a balm to whatever this festering wound is between me and Ethan. Because as much as I dislike Cooper for how he’s treated me this summer, I hate Ethan.

“Malory doesn’t give a shit about you,” Ethan states. “Did you really expect her to care about where you go after this?”

I don’t have anything to say to that. He’s right. But also, it’s called human decency and doesn’t Malory have any?

“Besides, we all know you were hired to do more than just clean.” His cruel eyes travel up and down my body. “But you failed at that, didn’t you?”

Excuse me? He’s the one who ripped Cooper’s naked body off me. He’s also the one who rejected me the few times I thought something might happen between us.

I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s who Ethan is: cruel.

It’s not just his eyes that are cruel. It’s his entire personality. The man doesn’t just create wounds; he salts them, too.

“I’ll have you know, Malory made it explicitly clear that I wasn’t to get involved with either of you, so actually, I didn’t fail.”

“Nobody gives a fuck what she told you. She has no power here. None.”

Wow. Just wow. The way he speaks about his mother is alarming.

Fuming, I curl my hands into tight fists and stand taller. I just need to get through this, get him to leave me alone, and then I can dissolve into panic. But right now? Right now I refuse to spend another second pressed into the wall, shrinking in on myself, giving into the pain, giving in to him.

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